location Den Ilp originally is an agrarian village and a typical example of ribbon development. The perpendicular ditches to the road separate the parcels and shape a sequence of plots that can be accessed from the road and will end in the water.

assignment The assignment concerns 18 new dwellings in the ribbon village Den Ilp, in the north of Amsterdam.

design The urban plan for 18 new dwellings breaks with the tradition to build along the road by hiding the volumes behind the front housing row. At the same time it partly colonizes one of the parcels in the back. In this way the houses can be integrated in the landscape. The plan starts from the road with 3 ribbon dwellings, which shape the head of the three rows. The three rows exists of 4 landscape dwellings and 8 water villas. Because the three rows are halfway reduced to a single row, the green character of the location will be preserved. Also the head of the parcel remains unaffected and shapes a smooth transition between the intervention area and the surrounding nature.

According to the current zoning plan all individual dwellings are subject to a set of conditions regarded to height, roof pitch and volume. Adjusting the initial volumes to the requirements results in a building volume with an own character that also connects to the morphological aspects of the surrounding buildings. Residents of the water villas are able to moor their boats at their house by adding a small storage annex volume to the villa.